In what is truly an astonishing first in aerospace engineering, the world's first ever plane with no moving parts and propelled in flight by "ionic wind" has been tested successfully by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Instead of propellers or turbine engines, this revolutionary light aircraft called "Version 2 EAD Airframe" (or V2) is powered by "ionic wind" -- which is a silent but mighty flow of ions produced aboard the plane. These energetic ions generate enough thrust to propel the plane over a sustained, steady flight.
The prototype V2 weighs only 2.45 kg and has a wingspan of 5 meters. During their tests, the MIT team conducted 10 indoor test flights where V2 flew about 60 meters, typically flying less than 2 meters off the ground.
To get airborne, V2 relies on generating an electrical field near an array of thin filaments called "emitters" at the front of the wing to ionize the air. This means electrons are removed and charged molecules called ions are created.
These positively charged ions are attracted to negatively charged structures on the plane called "collectors." As they move towards the collectors, the ions collide with air molecules, transferring energy to them. This creates a flow of air called an ionic wind that gives the plane its thrust.
The MIT researchers conducted successful flight tests at an indoor campus gymnasium of the unmanned airplane powered by ion wind propulsion, also called "electro-aerodynamic thrust." This form of propulsion is a physical principle first identified in the 1920s.
It describes a wind, or thrust, that can be produced when a current is passed between a thin and a thick electrode. If sufficient voltage is applied, the air in between the electrodes can produce enough thrust to fly a small aircraft.
V2 is classified as a solid-state machine because it has no moving parts. It was built to be as light as possible using materials like carbon-fiber, balsa wood, polystyrene plastic, shrink-wrap plastic, and Kevlar.
This is the first time that an airplane without moving parts has flown, said MIT aerospace engineer Steven Barrett, who drew inspiration from Shuttlecraft used by the starship Enterprise in Star Trek. He added that V2 has potentially opened new and unexplored possibilities for aircraft that are quieter, mechanically simpler, and do not emit combustion emissions.
He expects ion wind propulsion systems to be used to fly less noisy drones. In the longer-term, he envisions ion propulsion paired with more conventional combustion systems to create more fuel-efficient, hybrid passenger planes, and other large aircraft.
Barrett and his team at MIT published their results in the journal Nature.
The new design is a huge step in proving the feasibility of ion wind propulsion, according to Franck Plouraboue, senior researcher at the Institute of Fluid Mechanics in Toulouse, France. Before the advent of V2, researchers weren't able to fly anything heavier than a few grams.
